The veteran Manchester United photographer crammed the cubs together and urged them to roar. The piercing sound was unmistakably junior, a high-pitched enthusiasm befitting a school field.
It has been an inordinately long time since United last reached the FA Youth Cup final, their longest without an appearance for 40 years. Against a physical and fancied Wolves, the latest batch off the Carrington conveyor belt thrived in front of a 6,000-strong crowd at Old Trafford. The 3-0 scoreline flattered Wolves.
"It means a lot to all the boys," midfielder Dan Gore says. "We’ve left everything out on the pitch. I think the boys deserved everything we’ve got for the hard work we’ve put in.
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"The boys carried it out to perfection because the game plan we had was to send them wide. They are a big, physical side. But the boys dealt with that well. We stopped the crosses from coming in.
"To see all the fans here come and support us, it means a lot. To see some of your friends and family as well, even people you don’t know."
Charlie McNeill and Alejandro Garnacho, practically household names since their high-profile arrivals 18 months ago, got the goals and the headlines. After Wednesday night, Gore's name will have likely spiked on Google. The 17-year-old, previously at the Burnley academy, ran the midfield with the precocious Kobbie Mainoo.
Gore donned the number eight and describes himself as a box-to-box midfielder. Mainoo sported '6' and plenty of academy anoraks are already excited about the 16-year-old from Stockport. Born six months after Wayne Rooney debuted for United, Mainoo was playing for the Under-18s at the age of 15 and would be eligible to participate in the Youth Cup two years from now.
"Kobbie is a top player and a good lad as well," Gore enthuses. "We work well with each other. If one is out of position the other will fill in. We work well for each other, we talk a lot to each other and the boys - give encouragement. Me and Kobbie have played with each other for a long time, we have a good connection and we know each other very well.
"I think I did alright on the ball, and out of possession," Gore adds modestly. "Tried to keep them wide, not through the middle. But obviously, there is room for improvement in every game and hopefully in the next game I can improve on my performance."
"They played with real maturity," the Under-18 assistant coach Colin Little explains of Mainoo and Gore. "They had to be aware of the counter-attacks, they couldn’t just get lost in the game.
"That can happen with young players, they get the ball and think they’re in every attack, but actually sometimes they’re not, they’re there in case we lose it. I thought they put some fires out, mopped up counter-attacks quite well.
"He (Gore)’s been absolutely brilliant. You get what you see with Dan Gore. He brings it to training every day, he is competitive, combative, he is a really good footballer. He has been progressing really well, like the others. I think he was injured when he had to get back in the team."
Little, a former striker with Hyde, Altrincham and Crewe, has coached at United for the best part of 10 years and was tasked with hot-housing Marcus Rashford mere months before he burst onto the scene against Midtjylland in 2016. Mainoo, previously a No.10, perhaps best represents the evolution of the homegrown midfielder at United with his unflustered ball retention and proactive play.
Expectations are now certain to soar. "Can't get carried away," Little cautions. "They still have quite a bit to do in terms of getting across to the other side. But it’s great, we can see what they’re really good at, the bits they need help with, that is the job every day.
"The more high-profile games they play in, the more pressure that gets put on them. That’s what you want. In the end, they have to be able to perform under pressure in those types of games, the tasks they need."
Rashford had three cracks at the Youth Cup and the furthest he got was the fifth round. United have fielded some standout sides during their 11-year drought yet had only reached the semi-finals twice prior to this season's progression to the final.
Playing three successive ties at Old Trafford within a five-week period has been an advantage. Garnacho scored against Everton and Leicester, as well as Wolves, while McNeill has three goals in as many games at the stadium in the competition.
Development is the priority but winning takes precedent in the Youth Cup and the Youth League, which United were lucklessly eliminated from by Borussia Dortmund last week. Freshening up the staff has also been key. Travis Binnion took over from Neil Ryan as the U18 coach in the summer and the head of first-team development Justin Cochrane has built on the groundwork laid by Nicky Butt.
"We’ve not been to a lot of finals lately, so it means a lot to the lads," Little says. "The development of the players is the main thing but we want to go and win it now.
"Every round has been pleasing, a different challenge. We’ve had to come back from a goal down, break down a back five tonight, sometimes we’ve had to beat the underdogs. They’ve responded and found solutions.
"Justin and Trav before the game said, ‘You’re gonna have to play like men tonight.’ That maturity, the next step is the realism of the game, to do the right things to get you the result. We have an eye on development but tonight was about getting a result as well. It was a mature performance.
"You need luck. We’ve had really good teams and players and gone out with 80 per cent possession, 20 odd attempts at goal, conceding one. But the character of the team is the main thing.
"We have some really good players in whatever age at United - if you haven’t we have a problem - but you need determination. I think this group really has that."
One is the U18 captain Rhys Bennett, from Ashton Under Lyme. "I thought it was a good, solid team performance as a whole. I don’t think there was a department lacking. We were locking it down from the back, communicating, the lads up front put the ball in the back of the net.
"It’s a massive achievement to get what we have but the work is not finished. We are one game away from winning an FA Youth Cup, which is stuff that dreams are made of. I’m absolutely over the moon. The mood is buzzing. Everyone is so happy with the win.
"We’ve had a couple of ups and downs in this tournament, we’ve had to really dig deep, but as a team we’ve really gelled together."
Harry Maguire approached the academy head Nick Cox on Tuesday to ask whether he could assist in the preparations. Maguire knows Binnion from when he was a 14-year-old at Sheffield United and they were part of the same set-up that were defeated by United in the 2011 final.
Maguire was at Leigh Sports Village to watch the Under-19s in the Youth League earlier in the season, dispelling any notion his was a token gesture. "It was really nice of him to give us some words of wisdom," Bennett beams. "It was a confidence boost having the Manchester United captain take his time to come into the dressing room, it was an amazing feeling.
"It’s a very prestigious tournament. It was a big lift. We knew what we wanted to do but we’re not finished."
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